I recently read Between Noon and Three by Robert Farrar Capon. It was so gripping I read it in just a few days. It’s a book about the offensiveness of God’s grace and it is excellent. If you’re a Calvinist you’ll maybe want to add to to your list for the next time you’re planning a bonfire. But anyway, I recently came across this from another of Capon’s books and just loved it:

There is no sin you can commit that God in Jesus hasn’t forgiven already. The only way you can get yourself in permanent Dutch is to refuse forgiveness. That’s hell. The old baloney about heaven being for good guys and hell for bad guys is dead wrong. Heaven is populated entirely by forgiven sinners, not spiritual and moral aces. And hell is populated entirely by forgiven sinners. The only difference between the two groups is that those in heaven accept the forgiveness and those in hell reject it. Which is why heaven is a party–the endless wedding reception of the Lamb and his bride–and hell is nothing but the dreariest bar in town.?

Robert Farrar Capon
(The Mystery of Christ: And Why We Don’t Get it, 1993)

3 Responses to “Do you get it yet?”

A provocative quote worthy of prolonged thought…. A bonfire of the vanities….. there’s a thought !
Refusal of forgiveness = bad guy ? The two group thing seems like a corruption of a universalist theory….although I think I see what he’s getting at.
I can certainly see why you’d like it John !! I can see your little quizzical smiley icon as I write….

Not a corruption of a universalist theory, rather say its redemption? 😉

Capon isn’t a universalist in the sense that he believes absolutely everyone will ultimately be saved. He accepts (as is obvious from the quotation) that it is possible to reject God/salvation. I would find myself in broad agreement with that. That, of course, doesn’t sit too well with Calvinism and the idea of irresistible grace (as well as limited atonement). But then I’m not a Calvinist.